


Competitive Streak

by Caffeine_addict



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Family Bonding, Family Drama, Fluff, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-18 19:27:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15493002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caffeine_addict/pseuds/Caffeine_addict
Summary: Rey and Ben are a competitive couple. There's nothing wrong with that... except they've been winning at their family's XXtreme Scavanger hunt tm for quite a while now. Hux and Phasma are brought in to end their streak and... there is nothing with some good old sabotage when it's for the greater good.





	Competitive Streak

**Author's Note:**

> I just could not stay away from this ship... I will go down with it.

Rey knew this wasn't going to be a good day, but she never knew that those fuckers would mess with her so much. Sabotage, sure, that was well within the concept of some healthy competition, but physical violence. Unacceptable. 

“What are you doing?” She turned to her husband, Ben who was gathering everything that fell out of their bag, a very important task. “Catch them!” Still sitting on the ground, as her knee was scratched, she mourned the hole it made in her leggings. A casualty of war. 

“No, I won’t leave you behind! We’re in this together.” Stuffing the giant street sign into the shapeless black bag, he assessed the situation and seeing his better half was on her feet fuming with rage, the tall man took her hand in his and raced across the street. Gingerly, his wife stood up. Having taken a cautious step, with little pain, they were back on their way to victory. 

The side alley they just left was clean by New York standards. Back on the main road, Ben commented: “I can’t see them,” his eyes dashing left and right. “that ginger ass has to be somewhere around here.” 

“They didn’t take the sign?” Rey assumed they tripped her to take it from them. What would be the point otherwise? It would make it a business decision, not just random messing about. Perhaps that had a point too, but Rey was too blind to see it. 

“No, so that means they are hiding. Waiting for the opportunity.” His eyes were still glued to their surroundings, the tall buildings that housed suspicion, people dashing by, the top of Rey’s head every once in a while, a dumpster. But no tall traitors. 

“Jesus, I knew that horrible weasel Hux was competitive, but this is something else.” Rey responded. “Why were you ever friends with him?”

“I mean we did steal the sign literally in front of them. That doesn’t exactly make us any morally better.” Ben was still searching for the evil pair. Shocked that they were yet to show up. He was focused on anyone that was even a tad taller than the average person. Short people tended to be evil, but the only tall people he knew were horrible conniving assholes, himself included. 

“She did trip you. On the street.” He continued. “That has to be against the rules.” 

“Of extreme scavenger hunt? There are no rules!” Her voice raised in pitch. Rey coughed to rid herself of it. It was what it was. They had to finish this – they were so close. 

“Your freaking father designed this one. The one last week was so much easier. Why can’t your mother do them all?”   
Han Solo, Ben’s father, was a former adventure writer that now organised extreme team buildings, or in this case a very competitive Sunday activity that involved running, vandalizing, flirting and stealing. And that was an easy one. Rey and Ben won them all for the three months – an incredible roll by all counts., since the last record was six in a row. It was made by Ben’s uncle Luke and led to a very heated debate (argument) that resulted in a traumatised child (him) and a missing uncle (Luke). They were still unsure if he was actually alive in Iceland, what with him sending only birthday and Christmas cards. 

With no sign of their attackers, Ben’s intense gaze on passers-by relaxed. His answer was now made to his wife’s face, rather than whoever seemed suspicious. 

“Exactly, that means that rules will appear when convenient for him and since we are 3 items away from the end – I find it odd that he is nowhere to be seen.”

“He’s either biding his time, in which case we’ll deal with him later, or he doesn’t give a flying fuck. Either way, we need to focus on Hux and Phasma who have been on our ass the entire time.” Rey was incredible at predicting people, but Kylo was better at scaring them off. Together they made any competition their bitch. 

“Who the fuck invited the murder twins, anyway?” They made a sharp turn to make sure no one was following them, and right on time they saw Finn and Poe pass them. They must have been after the next item. Shit. 

Thinking quickly, she found a solution. “We need to progress to one after this. People won’t be there yet, and it will give us an advantage.” Rey looked at the list. “If there are two groups looking for that necklace, there isn’t much of a chance we’ll get there first.” Ben looked for anyone passing, but they appeared to be alone. That is sans murder twins and other conniving bastards. 

“This is what we’re looking for.” Rey pointed at a picture of a rubber duck between some books. They were in Cyrillic alphabet and had library tags on them. Strangely enough, they were dusty. A used book store perhaps? 

“I know those books.” Ben commented immediately. “They are in the library my family used to visit when I was a kid.” What a blast from the past, he thought. 

Rey turned to her husband, sure he liked books, but Russian literature for a kid? These days his taste was a very nice Jenny Colgan book about a girl baking. Not exactly the gritty stuff those books were supposed to be. 

“What?” He whined. “I liked the strange lines. I was told they were letters that meant something, but I just liked looking at them. I used to try writing them.” In fact he could fondly remember the hours he spent at his desk copying the pages with his pencil. He would imitate the square-looking symbols, sure that they were holding the secrets of life. Later, as an adult, he went back to read those books in English and discovered that didn’t hold the magic he believed them to have. For a while, they were even boring. He did manage to read them until the end and enjoyed them. Never found that original magic, thought. Perhaps he should learn Russian and see if the books he had as a child were somehow different. 

“Such a strange kid.” Rey looked adoringly at her husband. 

Remembering their first meeting in the karaoke bar where he and Hux, the weasel, watched as Phasma – his girlfriend at the time – sang a truly god-awful rendition of Toxic. It was only as the tall woman exited the stage that you could see the natural grace she possessed. Too bad you couldn’t appreciate it because of the song. Either way, Ben was drinking and sulking next to his friend. Rey was there with her college buddies Finn and Poe who were on a mission to get her the d she so badly needed. In their usual terrible fashion, they chose Ben. 

Ben, who refused to sing with his girlfriend. But then sang with her. She fell in love with him right there and then. Not that Phasma appreciated that. She picked a very loud fight, made a huge scene that everybody heard – the music even stopped playing so that people could hear it better. Somebody could be heard drinking loudly from a straw, mesmerised at the tall people arguing. Trying to hit him where it hurt the most, she revealed she was having an affair with Hux, but still threw a drink in his face. Ben retaliated by kissing Rey and then walking out with her into the night. 

The petite woman pressed her body against him and gave him a long kiss. Her arms stretched as far as they could and reached for Ben’s neck. Normally she would haul herself up, with the hub’s help, and wrap her legs around him. Today, the heavy bag full of assorted crap didn’t work cooperate. It was difficult to hold it in place and kiss. 

Breaking apart she sighed, “we really need to get going.” 

“Are you sure about that?” The pair was startled by an English accent. It was Phasma who retuned to claim the street sign. Maybe steal something while they were there. “Wouldn’t you prefer to have fun somewhere else and give us the sign?” 

They heard another voice from their left. “It would be so kind of you, if you did.” An equally tall man was blocking their exit on the other side. He was lean and ginger. Dressed all in black he gave off a no-nonsense attitude. 

“Hux, Phasma, we got this sign fair and square.” Rey said her voice colder than liquid dioxide. “It’s ours now and you can’t have it.” 

“But it is. We were the ones that unscrewed it. Your stupid tree of a husband stole it as we were unscrewing the last bolt.” Her voice was even, but a vein popping in her forehead revealed just how much this was important to her. People go to great lengths to win a competition. That should have been obvious when they themselves stole the sign, but as far as Ben and Rey were concerned their souls were firmly in the grey area. 

“Finders keepers.” He shrugged. Looking for a way to get them out of this situation. Probably by running. Then he caught something shiny out of the corner of his   
eyes. Oh, yes, that will do. 

“You can’t win anyway. There are three more items and we have two more than you do.” Another example of the bravado one puts on the moment the victory was in their grasp. 

“How terribly defeatist of you.” Ben practically purred. Phasma was stupidly wearing the necklace they needed. “No wonder you don’t win any of these.”

“I’m usually not invited.” Phasma was not feeling this. They were obviously stalling, but she couldn’t say why. Hux was no help – mouthing something she couldn’t understand. “Your candle of a mother seems to be afraid of some healthy competition.” 

“How right you are.” Ben tore the necklace from her neck, pushed his ex aside and knowing Rey wouldn’t necessarily follow, he picked her up and ran away.   
The other couple followed suit unfazed by the violence but distressed as they were losing. 

“We need to shake them, put me down.” Rey commanded as soon as they were a decent distance away from them. This time, she dragged her husband. Thanks to her strange childhood, she knew every backstreet and peak times, how odd that it helped her so much in her normal, adult life. She might not have been raised here, but hell if she was going to walk the main streets. 

Zig zagging through the people, she headed for the underground. They needed to get to the library and thankfully, there was no direct line here, so their destination would remain a secret for a little while more. The crowd helped too. She could feel the bag hitting some people as they passed them, but they didn’t get much more than a quick sorry out of her.

“I can’t believe they let us steal another item off them.” Ben had the necklace in his jeans pocket, feeling the adrenaline. They were doing this. It felt awesome and right and… he had no words for the rush he was experiencing. Things were as they should be once more. 

“They will be back.” Rey warned. “But I sure like the way you keep taking their stuff.” Smiling they entered the train carriage. As predicted it was terribly crowded and Rey’s huge purse didn’t help, but this was New York, so no one cared. To their left a guy had a husky in a carry-on bag. 

Hux and Phasma followed suit. Following Ben was relatively easy – tall people stick out – but Rey’s know how made it more difficult. For a second they lost them, Phasma was furious and so was Hux. Her strong arms were clenched, her teeth gritting. “Those insufferable, cowardly, no-good, cheating motherfuckers,” she barely got out of her mouth. Hux was too angry to form one word, let alone a sentence. However, neither of them stopped scanning the crowd, as they moved forward. The ginger noticed them first, “they are by the subway,” he screamed. 

Racing after them, they gave it their all but arrived seconds before the doors closed, missing their opportunity to retaliate swiftly. The true adults that Rey and Ben were blew them lots of kisses. They were winners, but never graceful. Not that they cared about that. 

“Ha, suckers.” Ben turned to his beautiful wife. “We are so going to win again.”

The giant put his warm hands on Rey’s waist. Every other person in the carriage disappeared for them. The brunette stared at her husband – he was so gorgeous her breath got knocked away every time she looked at him. Now she was looking properly she could appreciate every curl, his beautiful and smooth skin that just begged to be explored, every freckle, every mark needed to be touched and adored.   
Her breathing became shallow, as did his. “If you say so.” 

“I’m pretty fucking sure.” Ben responded and snuggled closer. It was crowded so it was space efficient. Obviously. 

“And I’m fucking pretty.” 

“A pun and a self-compliment.” Ben remarked. “How clever of you.” 

“I’m all cleverness.” If it weren’t for her British accent she wouldn’t have gotten away with saying stuff like this. 

“Will you show me around the library?” Rey pouted. 

“I thought we were going to win.” The award for the least impressed face goes to Rey Solo. 

“We can do both, we are the undisputed champions.”

“That’s right, bitch.” They high-fived and exited the carriage. 

The library was imposing as any good library should be to the uninitiated. Huge and white it looked more like the White House than the house in Rey’s hometown that happened to be a library. That should have been apparent when she saw they had an actual Russian literature section in Russian. Her home library was lovely, but they had exactly 8 books in languages that weren’t English. Three of those were Harry Potter. The rest of their collection was whatever old ladies happened to be reading at the moment plus the obligatory school readings. 

Ben led the way up the stairs. He moved with the self-assurance of someone who had been here many times and had no need to marvel at the ornate ceiling, old wooden doors or even at the incredibly large bouquet of roses. 

Rey didn’t have the same luxury; she dearly loved libraries, but the one close to their home was enough for her. It was as bright as she needed it to be and extremely well stocked, not that it was difficult when your reading taste was Victorian literature and the occasional chick lit. The appearance was humble – it was a modern building made for utility, not for impressing your guests. She wished that she knew the staff there better, she knew the faces, but it never went beyond that.  
“God, this is so surreal.” The Ben said, softened by the memories of his mother reading to a group of adoring children. He didn’t mind sharing her with them because she would read him an even better bedtime story every evening. While she was doing her bit to help out the community, little Ben was looking at the strange squiggles in Russian books. 

“Is it?” 

“I haven’t been here since I was 20.” Turning right, he was pleased to see that the Dewy decimal system was still in place. One while he was bored, he decided to uncover the mystery of those 800s he kept seeing. He got more than he bargained for in return and he even briefly considered to become a librarian or an archivist, before settling on law school. 

“Why 20?” Rey was intrigued. Seemed like an arbitrary enough number.

“Oh, I decided I was too cool for libraries.” 

“How did you do your coursework then?” Rey was confused, she knew he had to have done his work somewhere – if not the library then where? Better yet, why didn’t she have the answer for this?

“At home. I had an apartment. All my roommates studied at the library.” He grinned, happy to have beat the system. 

“You idiot, it’s beautiful here.”

Having reached their destination, Ben’s smile was exchanged with a confused look. “What the duck?” Rey exclaimed, horrified since the duck was missing, but not enough to decimate her sense of humour. 

“Oh well, oh well, look what we have here, Finn.” Finn and Poe were another couple competing in the ultimate Solo/Skywalker scavenger hunttm that is somehow even more ultimate every week. Ben didn’t really get why they were there – the only actual family member competing in it was them. That meant Leia and Han recruited people they liked – Hux because he fumed when he inevitably lost, Finn and Poe because they were good company and Rose would come by for dinner. She preferred to spend her ‘hunts’ in a Starbuck’s and came back for food and company. 

“It’s the couple that is about to lose.” He replied. 

“No, we’re not.” Ben said defensively. Next, he turned to his wife and whispered. “Are we?”

“We’re not losing, you know why?” She continued her husband’s thoughts. “Because you two are still way behind us and even if you get all the remaining items you will   
still lose.” 

“Oh, you think we’re going to play fair.” Finn chuckled. “We’ve no intention of that.”

Ben was happy to have closed the bag before entering the library. He tightened his grip on the handle. That fucker was a fool for thinking that they could get anything out of him. 

“Good.” Rey spat out. “Then we’ll be matched.” 

“Adorable, midget. Are you going to set your giant on us?”

“You know I will and you will regret doubting me.” Rey had no patience for weak players. Stealing was fair in this game when you stood a chance. Unless… they wanted to take all their items. 

“Sure, honey.” Poe hoped his gamble would pay off. He knew that Ben had much more strength that he showed – it was just last week that he saw the giant had an 8 pack (horribly unfair btw) – and that scared him. On the other hand, tall people tended to be less bendy, wit the strange exception of Lee Pace that is a human pretzel. 

“Let’s do it then. Your bae against my bae.” She gestured to Ben and Finn, knowing that Finn was the less athletic of the pair. 

“Ben wins, we get the duck and all your items so far.” Rey continued. 

“And if we win, we get all your items and we keep the duck.” Poe added. “So, what’s the game sweetheart?” 

“Easy, we each pick three books. We get the codes for them. Exchange them. Whoever comes back first with the correct books, wins.” 

“Too complicated, babes.” 

“Take it or leave it. We can still walk away from this. We don’t need the duck.” She lied. They needed it desperately. 

“Of course you don’t.” Poe played along. “I accept your game. However, no spitting, biting, tripping or any physical interference of any kind. And no stealing. It doesn’t   
count if Ben comes back with 4 books. And one more condition - we’ll be waiting outside for them.”

“Deal.” Rey really hoped that Ben knew his way around the library. “Five minutes to choose them.” Poe said. “No funny business in the mean time.”

The beautiful ‘midget’ also known as Rey, who was 5’2’’ and not a midget, just short and her husband was tall af, chose three books she guessed would be as far apart as possible. And they were, staring with 000.99 the other book was 300.875 and 989.989 he would spend some time searching for the right number and hopefully that would buy Ben time. 

Rey folded the piece of paper into a tiny square. Poe had already chosen his books and was waiting for her. He had a similar idea, although he made a terrible mistake – not knowing that 600s and 400s were opposite each other, he chose two of those. The last book was somewhere in the 000. A different floor, but nothing that Ben didn’t know.

Ben and Finn were outside the library waiting. They didn’t exchange a single word between them. For the time being they were enemies.   
“We’re done.” Poe announced, his voice cold. “Here.” He gave Ben the paper he wrote. Rey did the same. Ben gave her the bag with the items, as Finn gave his to Poe.   
The ‘judges’ moved to give them space. 

Waiting at the bottom of the stairs they must have made quite a strange picture, but no one cared, this was important business. 

“Ready.” Started Rey, “Set,” continued Poe, not to be outdone, “Go!” she finished, and the boyfriend raced off, up the stairs to retrieve the books and save their honour. 

Finn was first inside the building with Ben right on his heels. Rey’s heart was beating loudly, if that dork of a husband wouldn’t come back first after proclaiming that   
he knew the Dewy decimal system… she would be so damn disappointed. Also they would lose the championship (ok, so it wasn’t really a championship, but it was in her head) to Finn and Poe? Of all people?! Not even to those leeches Hux and Phasma, but to her dear friends and current enemies. 

Turning to Rey, Poe knew that his boyfriend would deliver – he knew this library like the back if his hand. He always hung around here during his college years. Those might have been a couple of years away, but muscle memory bruv. His feet would still remember where to go.

“Are you a-rey-ed?” damn him and his terrible pun-making machine of a mind.

“Did you really ask me that?” Rey was so done. First, she was physically assaulted by a giant woman (Phasma, not a real giant, but close), then her rightful duck was stolen and now she wagered all her stuff on a memory. But this was the worst thing she had the misfortune to hear all day. A fucking shitty pun of her name.   
She sighed loudly. “Why?” 

“It was right there.” Poe defended himself. “Why wouldn’t I use it?”

“But a-rey-ed? There is a wide a-rey of things you could have said that would have more meaning.”

“1 nice, 2 no.” Poe was not going to budge an inch on this matter, no matter the quality of the pun. It was in the pun rules. Never back down, bruv. 

“Just admit that I am right.” Neither was Rey. 

“My pun skills are not lacking in anything, you are merely blind to the full extent of the possibilities.” Poe was shocked, how dare she say something like that. 

“To make shitty puns? You’re even worse at them, than you are at this scavenger hunt.” Rey was not a kind competitor, as soon as things went well for her, she got   
cocky and insulting. All that was on her mind was insuring that she would really win. 

“Oh, but I know something you don’t. Something that will make your darling lose.” The dark man was feeling good about his plan. The bitch was going down. 

“Oh, you do, sure tell me.” Rey’s heart continued to beat fast. If that motherfucker got his hands on all her items she would never speak to him again. Her demeanour was calm and distant. It was obvious she took this seriously, but at the same time any hint of doubt could be detrimental to her descent into loserville. 

“Finn used to study all the time in this library, he knows every part of it. He’s gonna dust your emo boy’s ass so hard.” Poe imitated the sound of a bomb exploding.   
“In your pale British face.” Fuck humility, he was doing a victory dance showing the middle finger to Rey. It was terrible, not much of a dance, it appeared more like a Latino rope contorting. Through this display Rey tried not to laugh. 

“Oh yeah, you’re gonna lose. How does that feel, yeah?” He continued. 

“I don’t know, man, I think you’re the one that lost.” A voice interrupted his premature celebration. 

“Motherfucker.” Poe lowered his fucks in shame. His heart shattered. This was it. He made an ass of himself and now he had to pay.   
Ben fucking Solo was casually leaning on the library door grinning like an idiot. Having seen the failed victory dance and Rey’s unimpressed face aimed at someone other than him, made his entire day. Maybe even more, since they now definitely won. All that was left to do, was get to the finish line in his mother’s New York penthouse that was two blocks away. If they were lucky they wouldn’t encounter Hux and Phasma, the only people really bold enough to steal their items. Not because Ben’s parents were lacking in courage, but because they took this as their personal time and were probably having sex. He knew that to be true, as his father once made the game too easy and the won in mere 30 minutes. Ben still wished that he could pour acid into his eyes and forget all about his parents having sex. He might have been 36 at the time, but it still hurt him. 

At that time, Finn burst out of the library. He had his books with him (Ben’s were resting at his feet), hugging them since they were giant. Rey was surprised that they haven’t triggered any kind of alarm, seeing that they forgot to check them out. She guessed it really was easy to steal a library book. 

“I made it, I made it. No sign of the bastard.” He was breathless from the running. Taking one look at Ben, who was still super amused at the situation, he nearly dropped the books. 

“Brilliant.” Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. It was over. 

Poe has considered running off with their loot, just so they could mess with Ben and Rey, but soon realised that it would be a losing game. Rey was horribly athletic, her favourite activity was running, whereas he preferred less time-consuming activities. Lifting weights was more up his alley. She would catch up with him in no time.

“I believe it is time to hand over EVERYTHING you have.” Rey was gleaming. Never before had they won by such a giant landslide. It was pure ecstasy. Ben was now directly behind Poe, breathing down his neck like a tan Dracula. “Yeesss, give up, princess.” 

Last Halloween Poe lost a bet and had to attend every party he was invited to as Princess Peach. Of course, Ben was a mean little bitch and convince all his friends to invite him. Since he was not allowed to say no, he was the only Princess at the super fancy lawyer party Ben’s office had every year. How dare Ben work in a place that is a less serious version of Boston Legal. Apparently, he made it to their board of best costumes. 

Sighing heavily Poe dropped the bag where their items were. Compared to Ben and Rey’s 10 items, their meagre 5 seemed silly, but most times it was more about the group effort to prevent them from winning as opposed to actually winning. The rubber duck was already in the bag, still grinning its plastic smile.   
Ben immediately took it and taking Rey’s hand walked away as fast as he could. 

“A thank you would be nice.” Finn shouted. 

“Why are we walking so fast?” Rey wondered. “It’s not like they are coming for us.” 

“No, but the librarian is, and I want to be as far away as possible from that.” Ben answered. “Technically we triggered the alarm, but it always takes forever for someone to respond.” Turning the corner, they continued the fast pace to the penthouse. 

“Have you noticed that Hux and Phasma are strangely absent?” Rey was focusing on keeping up the pace. It really was odd. 

“Yes, they have to be somewhere here then.” She said more to herself. 

Truthfully they were. For the last 15 minutes, the tall weasels waited for them round the corner from the library, until a mere second before their enemies showed up, they decided to get coffee. When Ben and Rey passed them, they were busy ordering their espressos. 

“Didn’t you see them?” He asked. His voice was full of amusement. 

“See them where?” 

“We passed them a minute ago, they were ordering coffee.” Ben’s face was a thing of wonder. His nose was large and commanded attention, but every time he smiled his mouth seemed to be twice the size, taking over his face. In Rey’s mind he looked like a handsome and less chaotic Cheshire cat. His adorable freckles helped too. Actually, after 5 years of marriage, she still found him as cute as the day she met him. 

“Brilliant. Less hassle and they’ll be happy because coffee.” Rey kept up the brisk pace. It was imperative that they made it there before those two could break their coffee haze.

“They are never happy. Not even when they have coffee.” Ben retorted, “It is a very sad situation.” With similar thoughts in mind as his wife, the tall man used his long legs to his advantage. Taking long steps, he dragged the shorter Rey along. If he weren’t carrying the two bags already, he would take carry her too. So that they could travel faster, not to feel her up. Definitely not. 

Finally making it to the right building, the pair paused for a moment. This could either be a piece of cake, or Han and Leia were somewhere waiting to get his hand on their hard earned (stolen) loot. They might have spent the day doing icky things, but it was yet to stop them from trying to win by leeching onto other, more successful, players. 

“Distribute bags?” Rey suggested. “They attack us, we spread out.” 

“I have a better idea. Let’s do what we are not supposed to. Put all our eggs in one basket. The other one would only serve as a decoy.”   
Rey considered the idea – it wasn’t bad, just terribly risky. Then again, a risk that could pay off. Leia and Han knew that slowing down Ben was easier than slowing down her – she was nimble and athletic. Ben was sometimes marked by his height; tall men fall down easily when tackled by an angry mother. 

“Ok, you take the empty bag and I will take the full one. We pretend nothing is wrong, if something does happen, I race upstairs.” She was standing close to Ben, nearly whispering the instructions. Her brown hair was dishevelled in a way that hair gets when you’ve been living life and not taming it. A loose strand was meddling with her vision, so he tucked it behind her ear. Pausing for a second to look around she continued when satisfied that Hux and Phasma weren’t showing up, “you have to keep pretending like you are protecting the precious stuff.” 

Nodding Ben opened the less full bag. For a moment he thought they might still manage to swindle them and kept their items. He was happy to see he was wrong. Not to mention that this was the worst place to do this, ANYONE could see them. And if they can see them, they know what is going on. Placing the random object, he remembered all the good times he and Rey had: that time they had to steal a full coffee from a person he knew semi-well (Rey gave them money, but it counted because he just grabbed it and left), today they took a traffic sign (the street was renamed and for some stupid reason they just left the old one there, if you think about it, they were doing a public service.). Nobody at the office believed the crazy weekends they had. Then again, he considered, hearing the senior partner at a law firm was so careless with laws on the weekends did seem a bit of a stretch. 

As this was happening, Rey stood close-by to keep an eye out. In her mind, this was all too good to be true. At some point her nail tore, maybe her teeth did that as she dragged them between the teeth, or maybe it was collateral damage. She just couldn’t let it go, just knowing it was there was enough to make her quite anxious. Tried as could, there was no way of letting it go. She just pulled the edge off and sighing in satisfaction, observed her handywork. 

“Come on,” Ben gained her attention by touching her arm, “I’m done.” The bag was jam packed. A long metal object was sticking out from the zipper at the top, it was too long to stay in, even sideways. Good thing Phasma never went for that. 

“Good luck.” Ben stretched the tube handle over Rey’s head. Working with him, she put her arm and head through. She gave her husband a quick peck and left him with the empty decoy. 

As Rey rushed through the lobby and into the elevators, Ben took a more leisurely pace. Whistling, the younger Solo strolled to the lobby. He made sure to greet the receptionist, even had a chat with him about the weather – a side effect of being married to a Brit. Although, he suspected the reason they discussed the weather so much was because it was shocking when they actually had some; a summer storm could sometimes be even more surprising as sunshine.   
In the coffeeshop, Hux was sitting by the large glass window. He drank the larger part of his mocha, but still there was no sign of Rey or Ben. “This is useless,” he perched his head on his hand, “they must have taken a different route.”

Phasma, who had two black americanos, was buzzing. Having jumped from her chair she downed her companion’s coffee. She was nervously switching her standing. The ginger scarecrow raised his eyebrows. “Let’s do something about it!!” Phasma exclaimed. 

“Like what?” It was meant as a rhetorical question, there was nothing they could do. Thirty minutes have passed since they were denied entrance to the subway carriage. It was highly likely those two slipped past them. “For we know, they are in mommy’s arms having cake.” He spat out. Then he picked up the coffee cup at this elbow. Taking a sip he found there to be none. “And you drank my coffee.” 

“Big deal. I am going to the finish line. I have a good feeling about it.” She left the naysayer there. Caffeine-fuelled, the blonde passed the distance between the café and the Solo residence in minutes – quickly enough to see Ben Solo casually walk inside. 

“Yesssss.” She put her fists in the air to celebrate her luck, quietly of course. Where there was Solo, there was Rey. But Rey was nowhere to be seen. Her luck was killed in a matter of seconds. “Fuck,” she murmured this time, “she must have gone ahead.” 

Phasma knew Ben for a long time – they met in high school and started dating a year after. At the peak of teenage hormonal rage that did not bypass them. The Solo family has been open about many things, but their son sleeping with his girlfriend was a subject never touched upon and in Phasma’s opinion Leia hoped that it never happened. It did. She couldn’t count the number of times she snuck home late at night through the kitchen door. A definite advantage in this situation.   
Rey was in the elevator hoping that no one, really no one, was waiting to ambush her before the finish line. 

Phasma waited for Ben to enter the elevator before she ran through the lobby and up the stairs. The building wasn’t a terribly tall one – 10 floors – when going up two stairs at a time she made record time. 

The doors opened. Rey exhaled – she looked left and right. There wasn’t a person in sight. Some of her nerves abated. Perhaps it was this easy.   
Running up the final staircase, it seemed to be endless. New stairs appeared as she conquered old ones. Horrible, terrible, tedious stairs, she thought. “Fucking finally,” her breath was laboured from the effort, she had never ran as fast as she had today, “the fucking door.” Instead of pushing on the door she used her momentum to smash them wide open…

Only to see Rey going through the open door. 

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” 

It was all for nothing. Once again, she tasted the bitter taste of defeat and lord, was it bitter. There wasn’t an ounce of energy left in her, so after that magnificent   
film-style scream Phasma collapsed on the floor. 

Rey exhaled the breath she didn’t know was holding in. The winning bag slipped from her shoulder as Rey slipped on the floor. “Yessss,” she hissed, “made it again.” 

Leia, ever the casual observer in these games, walked back to see her daughter in law squatting and the glacial queen Phasma, crying on the floor. 

“Well that is new.” Leia downed the gin tonic she brought and returned to her naked husband.


End file.
